| TIMELINE The last 50 years Some Folk Milestones
|  |
| Note : Folk Groups (of three or more persons) are underlined | |||
| Featured Artists | Other UK happenings | American Influences | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 |
Ewan McColl (Scottish), Alan Lomax (American) and Bert Lloyd (English/Australian)
make concerted effort to steer the British music scene away from
American skiffle influences and towards English heritage music
by using popular BBC radio programmes and forming
Folk & Blues clubs. The Ian Campbell Group from Scotland, had the now legendary Dave Swarbrick as fiddler. |
Doc Watson, Alan Lomax, Jean Richie,
Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, The Weavers (with Pete Seeger),
The Kingston Trio. Peggy Seeger came to England in 1956 and stayed, marrying Ewan MacColl. |
|
| 1951 | |||
| 1952 | |||
| 1953 | |||
| 1954 | |||
| 1955 | |||
| 1956 | Scottish Davey Graham (of John Mayall Band) in London – heard by both Jansch and Renbourn | ||
| 1957 | 56/57 – the skiffle craze | ||
| 1958 | Shirley Collins starts recording | The Radio Ballads by MacColl, Lloyd, Louis Killen, Peggy Seeger and others | The Kingston Trio's Tom
Dooley
START OF USA FOLK-SCARE PERIOD |
| 1959 | Cyril Tawney starts broadcasting | Book Penguin Book of English Folk Songs by Bert Lloyd | Irish Fiddle Tunes continue to be adapted to folk by Americans |
| 1960 | START OF UK FOLK REVIVAL | Joan Baez starts recording | |
| 1961 | |||
| 1962 | British folk still mostly unaccompanied (Bert Lloyd, Cyril Tawney, etc) with some guitar-accompanied (Bert Jansch, John Renbourn). Martin Carthy is also singing and playing, but doesn't go solo for another three years. | Bob Dylan starts recording | |
| 1963 | Anne Briggs starts recording | ||
| 1964 | Shirley Collins/Davey Graham's Folk Roots New Routes | Bert Jansch & John Renbourn collaborations | Dylan in London |
| 1965 | Martin Carthy goes solo |
Watersons are recording Both Marianne Faithfull and Donovan do folk/pop fusions which are popular in UK | Paul Simon in London Dylan uses electric guitar |
| 1966 | Young Tradition | Frankie Armstrong | |
| 1967 | Dave & Toni Arthur recording | Pentangle
formed by Renbourn & Jansch Fairport Convention formed by Ashley Hutchings Book Folk Song in England by Bert Lloyd | |
| 1968 | Peter Bellamy solo | Dave Burland starts recording Sandy Denny joins Fairport & band starts to use fiddle | |
| 1969 | Fairport's Leige &
Lief Steeleye Span formed – Maddy Prior the principal 'voice' (NB: first album also had Gay & Terry Woods but the first tour had Martin Carthy) THE 5-YEAR HEYDAY OF UK FOLK-ROCK BEGINS | ||
| 1970 | Nic Jones' Ballad & Songs, Shirley Collins' Love Death & the Lady, Trees | ||
| 1971 | Albion Band started | ||
| 1972 | Morris On | ||
| 1973 | |||
| 1974 | |||
| 1975 | Etchingham Steam Band formed because of electricty cuts (the 3-day week and 'Winter of Discontent'). Watersons (also non-electric) re-formed with Martin Carthy. | Fleetwood Mac, gaining Americans Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, change from blues to rock-folk-rock with the landmark album Fleetwood Mac | |
| 1976 |
Peter Bellamy's The Transports produced to great acclaim
June Tabor's first solo album, Airs and Graces, and her Silly Sisters tour with Maddy Prior | ||
| 1977 | |||
| 1978 | Tony Rose | John Renbourn / Stefan Grossman (USA) collaboration | |
| 1979 | |||
| 1980 | Nic Jones' Penguin Eggs | June Tabor / Martin Simpson collaboration | |
| 1981 | |||
| 1982 | Bert Lloyd dies | ||
| 1983 | Hilary James recording | ||
| 1984 | |||
| 1985 | |||
| 1986 | |||
| 1987 | |||
| 1988 | Vikki Clayton starts recording | ||
| 1989 | |||
| 1990 |
In UK, Folk Artists begin re-issuing albums in CD format
June Tabor / Oyster Band collaboration | ||
| 1991 | Peter Bellamy commits suicide | ||
| 1992 | BBC (Scotland) makes Acoustic Routes film | ||
| 1993 | Acapella singers Coope, Boyes & Simpson formed | ||
| 1994 | Jane Threlfall and Carl Hogsden's album Who? | ||
| 1995 | Term 'Folk Babes' increasingly used to describe 2nd-generation revivalist singers, notably Nancy Kerr, Eliza Carthy and Kate Rusby | ||
| 1996 | Sandra & Nancy Kerr's Neat & Complete | ||
| 1997 | Vikki Clayton's Movers & Shakers | ||
| 1998 | Jo Freya and sister Fi finally make an album together | ||
| 1999 | Retrospective CDs gather pace: Peter Bellamy; Nic Jones; Tony Rose; John Goodluck | ||
Happy Millennium — Someone else can timeline 2000–2050
| Have I missed some important milestones ?? There is an email form available for you to comment on this timeline. | The album set The Electric Muse which is the story of folk merging with rock, has excellent 'timeline' information. The site dealing with the many folk artists covered by Electric Muse can be found at http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/steeleye.span/records/new_electric_muse.html and new_electric_muse2.html, and this site carries some notes accompanying the tracks - but only where the track pertains to a Steeleye member. Mustn't grumble, Reinhard Zierke has a great site. Note that what looks like a mirror site at http://hum2mac1.murdoch.edu.au/watersons/new_electric_muse.html has in fact even fewer track notes - it just has those relating to Waterson/Carthy. |
ANNE BRIGGS |
BERT LLOYD |
CARA DILLON |
CYRIL TAWNEY |
DAVE & TONI ARTHUR |
ELIZA CARTHY |
FRANK PURSLOW |
HILARY JAMES |
JANE THRELFALL & CARL HOGSDEN |
JO FREYA |
JOHN GOODLUCK |
JOHN PEARCE |
JON SCAIFE & BOB BRAY |
KATE RUSBY |
KATHRYN ROBERTS |
MARIANNE FAITHFULL |
NANCY & SANDRA KERR |
NIC JONES |
PETER BELLAMY |
SHIRLEY COLLINS |
TONY ROSE |
TREES |
VIKKI CLAYTON |
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